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Hanging With The Natives

Thursday, June 9th, 2022

I wanted to see a macropod, so it was off to Blackbutt I walked!

The last few times I visited, legions of mosquitos descended on me and drained me to within millilitres of death! Today however, the skies were free of the evil blighters. Even better, the car park was almost empty as well and I felt like I had the place to myself.

I ran into this phasianidae preening himself between some trees. He became interested in me when I started snapping shots but I think it’s because he mistook my phone for a snack! I ran away when he got too close 🙂

I saw these pelodryadidae’s hanging in a tank in the nocturnal house. There was a bunch of them chilling together, and they didn’t care a whit for my attention. They were quite large, and to be honest a little creepy in the dark!

The two phascolarctidae were sleeping as they do, forming almost perfect furry balls on their tree perches. I watched them for a while, looking for signs of life, but saw nothing. They may have been fake, for all I could tell!

The vombatidae on the other hand was most definitely alive! He was scurrying around looking for sweet potatoes (I saw the keeper hide one behind a plant) and seemed quite happy in the cool air. I took this photo from above and he looks smaller than he was, which was about a metre long!

But what about the macropods? The sole reason (not really) I visited Blackbutt! Did I see any?

The answer is that yes I did, quite a few in fact, although always from a distance. I also saw two having a funny slap-fight, which I found very cute and amusing.

Afterwards I continued walking to the mall for lunch, and then back home. It was a leisurely five hour walk, and a nice way to relax after the madness of the city.

Posted in Animals, Australia, Trip | Comments Closed

‘Imaginary Skeleton’

Sunday, April 17th, 2022

It’s time for another model kit, and yes I know this means two in two days.

This is a new Bandai Imaginary Skeleton kit of a tyrannosaurus. As soon as I saw this I knew I had to have it! (The omission of ‘rex’ from the name is likely due to this kit being an imaginative depiction of what may have been three separate species.)

The kit is notable for almost every piece being the same colour! It also has the biggest piece I’ve ever seen in a model kit (the base, see photos below) and is also one of the biggest kits I’ve ever made.

In addition to an instruction manual (in colour and with English instructions as well as Japanese) the kit also contains this 10-page booklet with the latest science about the tyrannosaurus. For instance, it shows how back in the 1900s we thought tyrannosaurus stood up like kangaroos but now we know they more likely lean forward and are feathered.

The head shown above contains ten individual pieces. While the kit doesn’t need glue, I used a bit here and there to keep the connections nice and tight.

From the booklet I learned that the head of a living tyrannosaur weighed about 500 kg, and had a brain that was unusual large compared to mammals. From this scientists believe they were more intelligent than most mammals, especially related to hunting since they had well developed vision and smell. Their longest teeth were 30 cm and had a serrated inside edge like a steak knife.

Look how long that tail is (and the kit in general)! The tail itself was nine pieces, but the rib cage was many more since each rib pair was a separate piece.

On the underside of the ribcage is a smaller inverted riblike structure called a ‘gastralium’. This supported the internal organs and itself was connected to a bone called the pubis which was likely used for support when the tyrannosaur lowered itself to the ground, since it was probably unable to lie down.

It was once believed that the tyrannosaur was clumsy and even slow, and as a result probably ate carrion. But these days we have a better understanding of the physics of the skeleton, and most researchers agree that tyrannosaurs were in fact agile, and could possibly even leap to attack prey (which this kit depicts). This was a creature up over three times the mass of an elephant that may have been agile and intelligent!

These beasts lived in North America about 66 million years ago. This was the last days of the reign of the dinosaurs, and some theorize that the tyrannosaurs were ultimately unable to achieve their full potential due to premature extinction. In other words, for as fierce a predator as this thing was, it may have only been a prototype of something even more deadly!

I love this kit. It’s easy to build, looks great when assembled and comes with a lot of interesting information. For a dinosaur-loving child, this would be an incredible gift.

Posted in Animals, Crafts, Models, Nature, Otaku, Science, Time | Comments Closed

Animal Contest: Results!

Thursday, April 14th, 2022

At the halfway point of our animal painting postcard contest, we were tied at 3 wins apiece and it was anyones game. All the paintings are now complete, sent, received and judged. It’s time for the final results! With no further ado…

Anglerfish

The judges (who were picking the subjects) began to get creative here, and this pick was one that would test our ability to paint lighting effects! Mine is on the right and Bernard’s on the left, and you can see our approaches are quite different. Mine seems cartoony, but I learned doing research that there are quite a few different types of anglerfish and I did my best to reproduce one of the more unusual breeds.

The judges had trouble with this one, and three split their votes. In the end I won with my fish 3.1 – 1.9, with many judges citing my light as being the decider. Here’s some specific comments:

“The fish on the right because of how well the glowing orb has been rendered.”
“The fish on the left looks a bit like something else – an orc or goblin. I think that’s because the surrounding murk looks like hair and a neck.”
“I like how dark the one on the right is and the creepy eyes.”

One judge may have said Bernard’s looks like an orc, but I can’t unsee what Bernard himself said his fish resembles: Mr T!

Porg

And here’s a judge giving us a not-real animal! Mine is on the left and Bernard’s on the right, and… well oh dear. I made a critical error in rendering the rainbow in the background (for no reason other than to use my new neon paints) and Bernard himself cited his method was to produce a portrait in the shortest time possible. Overall, the judges weren’t too impressed with either of these and it seems they were mostly choosing the one they felt least unimpressive!

Bernard won 3 – 2, and my two votes – both for the rainbow – were countered by three votes against the rainbow! It seems the judges had difficulty seeing past my the rainbow when evaluating these:

“The rainbow looks a bit half-hearted.”
“The one on the right looks like a spaniel.”
“I haven’t thought too much about the size of these artworks up to this point. I have always known that they are on postcards so in fact quite small. I can appreciate the difficulty of creating a detailed and interesting artwork in such a small space, especially in watercolour. Still the one on the right feels a bit lazy. Has the artist become bored with the competition. Is he lacking inspiration? Perhaps he is not inspired by the subject? Perhaps, like my hated of Minions, he despises the supposed cuteness of the fictional creature whose existence seems completely worthless. The banality of the subject has been rescued in the artwork on the left by the splashy rainbow, and this artwork therefore wins.”
“I LOVE the right. That porg pout. Holy bajesus!”

Quokka

Mine is on the right, and Bernard’s on the left. Do these paintings even depict the same creature? If you’re wondering, I had attempted – and utterly failed – to paint a fur texture freehand. Even before the paint had dried on mine I said to KLS “This is Bernard’s to lose” but in the back of my mind I hadn’t forgotten the judge’s comment on the his porg and thought perhaps I could sneak a win?

It turns out I had no chance, and his painting blew mine away. The only surprise was I got any votes at all, and that his win was only 3.5 – 1.5. And yet this shouldn’t have been a surprise, since the judges continued to be as unpredictable as ever! Their comments:

“These are both delightful but the one on the right wins.”
“This is a tie. I think left presents the subject a little bit better but fundamentally it looks quite derpy. Also the nose looks weird. The right has an evil look on its face… I don’t trust the right quokka!”
“Having seem them up close in real life when I visited Rottnest Island, I feel confident in selecting the artwork on the left as the one which most accurately captures the quokka’s stupidly happy spirit“

Frog

The very first thing that entered my mind when frog was given to us as the next subject was a frog prince. I rejected it as too whimsical, and instead planned to paint a poison dart frog. But black paints are problematic (see my gorilla…) and I couldn’t get the prince out of my mind. Plus I did have some metallic watercolour paint…

Mine is on the left and Bernard’s on the right, and this one gave the judges quite a bit of trouble! Both approaches are fundamentally different, both striking in their own way and neither easily dismissable due to technical faults. Judging for this one was easily the longest of the entire contest, but in the end I won 3-2. Here’s what the judges had to say:

“King frog is best frog!”
“I love the gold crown on left, but I adore the slight leftward angle of the right head.”
“I like the color contrast of poisonous frog on mushroom. I like the eyes and soft feel of the painted frog, a little bit like Monet, but the coloring is too weak.”
“Left seems crafted to appeal to the supposed preferences of the judge. One might find the bright pretty colors and shiny baubles somewhat obvious and patronizing but I hate to admit I love this picture. Simple, balanced, well-crafter. The crown is magical. While this artwork is largely fairytale it’s as charming as a prince.”

Spider

There’s over 45,000 different types of spider on Earth and yet – with no collaboration – we both chose the same one! To Americans this is a black widow, but to both of us this was a redback spider. Going into this one I had a comfortable 6 – 4 lead, so I knew at least the contest would be a tie, and as such perhaps the pressure was off. But I redoubled my efforts, and in this case that meant I put extra effort into the web and perhaps not as much into the spider: mine is on the right and Bernard’s on the left.

As soon as I saw Bernard’s I knew the win would be his, and yet I was once again surprised when the judges agreed, albeit with a slight 2.9 – 2.1 victory. It turns out my web was impressive enough to score me a few points! Here’s the comments:

“The left spider is superb. How the artist was able to create such dimension with just two colours is genius. The natural stance of the spider is perfectly captured. The legs are well defined and the abdomen beautifully bulbous, ready to devour her mate.”
“The one on the right has a cartoon quality. The spider is cute but harmless. The colours are bright and the definition in the artwork belies the medium. The web is particularly well done.
“A tie. The shadow on the left is pretty nice. The web on the right I appreciate because it looks like it took a bit of effort. In the end though they both need to die in a fire because spiders!”

Scarlet Macaw

Mum chose the first subject (Panda) and it was finally time for her second choice. We were expecting squirrel but for our last animal she chose a colorful parrot! Bernard’s is on the left and mine on the right, and once again our efforts confounded the judges.

This was the third time three judges split their votes, and perhaps fittingly this was the result with the closest final score. In the end I squeaked in with a 2.7 – 2.3 win, and it literally came down to the very last vote of the contest! Here’s what the judges had to say:

“I vote for the one on the left, which has the best watercolor technique.”
“Left has more depth.”
“The colours are done well in both birds. The face gave each of you trouble. The winner is the one on the right; I love the composition.”
“The one on the right sparked the most joy.”
“Left is the better watercolour but right has better colours.”

Final Results!

Twelve animals over three months, and 60 individual evaluations by our panel of judges. It’s time for the final results…

I won, with 7 wins to Bernard’s 5!

Looking at total points, I scored 33.8 to Bernard’s 26.2, which means the final decision came down to only 4 votes. Looking at individual entries, it could be argued that Snake won the entire contest for me (since I swept that 5 – 0).

Looking back on the contest as a whole, here’s our opinions on our work, and the results:

Bernard felt his best piece was his cat, and while I agree it was superb, I think his very best was his spider.
I felt my best piece was my eagle, and Bernard agreed.
Bernard felt his worst was his Porg, but I believe his snake was weaker.
I felt my worst piece was my quokka, but he thought it was my cat.
Bernard believes he should have won cat instead of me, and that I should have won eagle instead of him, and I agree with him on both of these.
When asked for a statement on the judging, Bernard said this: “My win was clearly stolen by a panel of judges easily distracted by bold colors and metallic paints!“
My comment on the judging is: “My win was harder than it should have been due to judges overlooking blatant rules violations by an opponent who brought pencil sketches to a watercolour contest!“

Jesting aside, thanks very much to all the judges for your valued and wise critique. Watch your mailboxes for a special reward from an award-winning artist…

We didn’t take as many work-in-progress pictures this time around, but here’s a few of mine:

I used washi tape for my spider web, which I cut lengthwise before applying to the postcard and then painting over with a grey wash before removing the tape. I did this three times in fact (for practice), and the other two are in the mail on the way to lucky recipients. Of course while this looks good, the problem was the web was too small to paint a large spider on, and that it was extraordinarily difficult to find a reference photo posed correctly so I just made up the spider 🙂

The above shows my anglerfish, which used only two colors. As you can see by this point I had mostly eschewed sketches and was applying the paint from a sort-of palette.

The size of the images sent to judges made detail difficult, and I was especially concerned (for no reason, as it turned out) that the metallic paint for the crown on my frog wouldn’t be visible. The above is a detailed photo showing how fancy that paint looks!

So another annual contest has ended. If you’re keeping track I won Postcards (in 2020), Bernard won Portraits (in 2021) and now I have my second win for Animals in 2022. What will the 2023 contest be? Perhaps we already know… but you’ll have to come back next year to find out 🙂

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Crafts, Family, Miscellaneous, Postcards | Comments Closed

A Few Unusual Things

Sunday, March 6th, 2022

I had a birthday recently, and got a lot of weird and wonderful stuff. Here’s a few of them…

KLS gave me an electronic card, that plays Happy Birthday and then lets you blow out the candle (yes you blow on the card) to trigger a jumping game! It’s smaller than a credit card and very unique.

This dispenser creates a cat paw pattern using foam soap! It works very well, and the soap from this Japanese item is denser than what we get here in America. I reckon this basic idea will be the first of many of its kind…

This is a set of neon/metallic watercolour paint samples, and I’ve showed what they look like on the right. The glitter ones are extremely cool, but apparently look best on black paper. I wonder if I can use these in the ongoing postcard contest?

This sculpture of a one-eyed raven – possibly one of Odin’s ravens – is made of resin, quite heavy and mounts on the wall. We have a few items like this, and he’ll find a welcome home on our walls. KLS purchased this directly from the artist, and mine is #139 of 300 🙂

The above is a set of stamp sheets depicting American wildlife. They were printed one per year between 1998 and 2009, and Bernard gave me the full set!

The artwork on these is fantastic, and they are printed in such a way that it’s not immediately obvious they contain actual stamps! I’ll never use these; they’re certainly ‘for the collection’ 🙂

And lastly another piece of art: a miniature giraffe sculpture! This is also made of resin, and is hand painted. It’s incredibly tiny: that’s my fingertip on the left and a normal size LEGO minifig on the right. I need to find some sort of mini display case to put him in since he’s so weightless he may just drift off on the wind one day!

As I said this is just a selection of what I received for my birthday. The ‘usual stuff’ (model kits, LEGO, trading cards etc.) will eventually get their own posts right here on this very blog!

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Collecting, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Stamps, Tech | Comments Closed

Animal Contest: Halftime!

Tuesday, March 1st, 2022

A new year meant a new postcard contest, where the worlds most amateur artists would once again render a selection of topics and have them judged. Things were mixed up this time, and the rules were as follows:

The subjects are all animals
We would paint each using watercolors
There are twelve animals in total: Five judges pick two each, and mum picks the first and last

Six are done and the judging is complete. Let’s see the standing at the halfway point…

Panda

Mum’s first pick was a real surprise, but I won’t say what I thought she’d pick since she’s got one more coming. The watercolor nature of the contest immediately made it more difficult than the portraits! We’re both using watercolor pencils, and in the early weeks I drew a pencil drawing then wet it to achieve the paint effect, which meant detail was extremely difficult. However… Bernard ignored the rules and didn’t even create a watercolor!

Mine (on the right) was given the win by the judges with a score of 4.7-0.3 (Bernard got a tiny nod due to cuteness).

Here’s a comment from one judge about mine:
“Movement and emotion are conveyed and one can almost hear the panda munching away on his bamboo.”

Eagle

Mine is on the right and Bernard’s on the left and once again (sigh) we see he failed to add water and therefore didn’t create an actual watercolor. He feigned ignorance of the rules at this point, but it was clear he was exploiting the fact the judges themselves were ignoring the rules since he won this one 3-2. One judge even said “Left doesn’t look like an eagle but it has more detail so it gets my vote“! Imagine that: giving your vote to the non-watercolor that doesn’t even look like the topic!

It was at this point that the truth of this contest was becoming clear: the judges are inscrutable and whimsy and emotion factors as much into their decisions as artistic merit. This would have to be carefully considered by the artists…

Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish)

A salute to the judge that picked this, since it allowed liberal use of color! The strong difference between each approach made this a harder choice for the judges. Ultimately Bernard (on the right) won 3-2 but I sensed it was very close.

Some judges comments:
“Left is the first one that actually looks like a watercolor“
“Right looks like a goldfish!”
“Right is more three-dimensional with a beautiful impression of fluidity“

Incidentally I was very happy with the shading on my fish (the light spot on the upper back), which wasn’t easy for me to obtain. I don’t think any judges noticed it 🙂

Cute Domestic Housecat

This one was unusual since the judge added a condition: cuteness was key, and an image of a plain cat would be valued less than a cute cat. No judge had done this previously (or since), but as artists both B and I accepted the condition without comment. I took it very seriously and my creation is on the right, with Bernard’s on the left. Which one is cuter?

Ultimately the win was mine 3-2, but three judges split their votes, with the biggest being 0.3/0.7! Two judges commented that they gave me more points despite the technical skill shown in Bernard’s being greater since they assumed/understood that mine was in accordance with the criteria.

One judge decided Bernard’s was technically better and cuter with this comment:
“The definition of cuteness I will follow is ‘attractiveness that is pretty and endearing’. Left displays considerable skill in the choice of colors and the minimal application. The shadows on the face convey the soft shape and are extremely well done; the cat peeks out of the page with a perfect expression of indifference. The soft pink of the ears and subtle grey shadows lend strength to the brilliant blue/green eyes which make this exceedingly pretty and irresistably endearing. The cuteness factor is off the chart!“

Isn’t it interesting that we both chose white cats with grey shadows and both used pink as a secondary colour?

Gorilla

Another surprise choice, from a judge who I expected would have picked any number of other animals. Mine is on the left, and Bernard’s on the right. The judges wasted no time in their deliberation, and awarded Bernard the win 3.3-1.7 (yes, more split votes).

I went with bombast in my depiction, intending to evoke Kong silhouetted against the sun. But my intention exceeded my ability, and some of the finer detail of my pencil drawing was lost when wetted (see below).

Here are some judges comments:
“I can’t get over the expression of left“
“I’ll pick the silverback on the right; I like the use of light“
“Left is a tortured gorilla’s cream on behalf of all gorillas killed by selfish and greedy humans to satisfy a rich mans ego. The bold lines and dramatic colors evoke deep trauma and injustice. A world in which this typically peaceful giant is hunted and abused is an ugly world indeed and this artwork reminds me to be angry and sad and to do something to make the world better for all the beautiful creatures that live in it before human stupidity destroys all of it. Right is peaceful and gentle by comparison. The colors are soft and natural. A gorilla going about his day bored of any human observer. It is a fine artwork but the indifferent beauty depicted serves to intensify the impact of the emotion portrayed by left.“

Snake

Two judges are impossible to predict, one likes bold color, and two respond to dramatic imagery. This was my conclusion by this point, so to win I had to use bold colors and do more than a simple depiction of the subject. When Snake was chosen, the obvious choice therefore was Lucifer and his apple, and my depiction is on the left. I had been impressed by Bernard’s gorilla and queried him about his techniques. As a result this was the first time I didn’t simply draw a pencil illustration and wet it: I also applied the pencils directly to the wet postcard and mixed paints on a palette and applied them using a super-fine brush I cut down just to show the scales. As this one went into the mail, I was confident.

As it turns out the judges agreed and gave me the unanimous win: 5-0. I can see flaws in mine, but I think B had a few missteps here, not the least of being a lack of ‘mouth definition’ (which three judges cited).

Here’s some of the comments:
“Right looks like a cross between a snake and an alligator!”
“Left makes me think of a hidden danger in a gamebook, where the critter on the right is a tad eel-ish for my money.”
“Great texture in snake and apple”
“Use of the apple in left is very clever… The colors contrast and compliment to a lovely effect… The eye is odd but suits the supposedly friendly nature of the snake to tempt a sweet virgin to taste forbidden fruit!” (This was the only judge that commented on the biblical theme.)

And so, after six animals, the tally is: we are currently tied with 3 wins each! This is good for the contest, but hard for us. I was hoping for an early lead to I could ‘get experimental’, but with the competition as tight as it is every card matters and I must always think of the judges as I decide what to create.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes photos of some of my creations before I added water:

And here’s my cute cat in pencils:

One aspect of the contest invisible to judges are that we are both using an identical set of twelve postcards. This was an arbitrary decision of mine (I printed two copies of a 12-card set several months back) and only after we decided this did I realize this added an extra wrinkle: we couldn’t discard a picture and start again since we wouldn’t have enough postcards! So if we want to practice we need to use other cards. Bernard has done just that a few times, and he has also been sending me his practice arts, none of which were intended for judge submission. Here’s his alternate ‘cute domestic housecat’ and ‘betta’. He won Betta but I won Cat, do you think he could have won had he submitted this one:

As usual in about six weeks I’ll follow up with the final results. As of right now, this is anyone’s game 🙂

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Miscellaneous, Postcards | 1 Comment »

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